We have all heard of Helicopter Parenting, but have you heard of Drone Parenting? A Drone Parent is a parent who, when seen from afar, might be perceived as having a hands-off approach to parenting. They use technology to monitor, restrict, and protect their children from themselves and the world around them. Most...
Discipline With a Long-Term View
Discipline is one of those things we get asked about all the time. Whether you are dealing with a preschooler who is biting, an elementary child who is lying, or a teenager who misses their curfew, every parent is looking for the next idea that might crack the code to changing those hard-to-manage situations....
Freedom To Follow Christ
In this week’s return to the Parenting Pathway Podcast, Family Ministries Pastor Dave Carl invites Elementary Ministry Leader Barbara Deatherage to share her struggle to overcome a lifelong battle with legalism and redefine what it means to be a follower of Christ....
Self-Harm and Our Teens
In the life of a parent, few moments can be as terrifying as a child undergoing a mental health crisis, and it’s been happening more and more these days. For some students, cutting or burning themselves is a dangerous way of coping when depression and anxiety lead to an avalanche of painful emotions. A student...
Help Your Kids Navigate Friend Drama
Do you remember middle school? You know, those years where your body was growing and changing almost every day—one day you wake up and your feet are two sizes too big for your body, and you suddenly have acne all over your face and hair in new places. Middle school is also a time...
Parenting Hacks for Everyday
One of the best things about being part of a community with other parents is learning how they approach similar problems. Let's face it, there are not a lot new parenting challenges under the sun, but there are many approaches to head them off or tackle them. As we wrap up our back-to-school series,...
Five Tips to Overcome Back-to-School Anxiety
It’s back to school season in North Texas. This time of year has always been filled with some level of fear and anxiety. How could it not be, with new schools, new teachers, new programs, new rules . . . So much "new" is hard for anyone. But the start of the 2021–2022 school...
These Kids are Fragile
I had the opportunity to attend high school camp this summer. I went with the expectation of late nights, kids who were going to slip off into the woods, some infighting between groups, some hurt feelings, a few bumps, and bruises, and the general camp stuff. I was completely unprepared for the number of...
Stuff My Dad Said, Part 2
Most of us will be in some form of leadership as adults. This is a very tricky position to be in, and failure can come in a thousand different ways. Despite the stakes being quite high, most of us are thrown into leadership before we get any instruction on how to do it well....
Stuff My Dad Said, Part 1
Imagine you and I are sitting on the shore of a quiet lake fishing, or around a campfire dodging the smoke, or sitting on the front porch rocking in a couple of wooden chairs that squeak just a bit when you rock. Can you imagine that? Good. Now join me for a small sampling...
The Value of Mentors to Our Kids, Part 2
In part two of our Parenting Pathway Podcast series on mentoring, Pastors Dave Carl and Steve Fischer talk about what it looks like to be a mentor and a mentee. We at Stonebriar strongly believe that spiritual growth is best achieved through the guidance and encouragement of fellow believers. The intimacy that develops in...
The Value of a Mentor to Our Kids
The more time we spend with kids and their parents, the more we have become convinced that all of our kids are desperate for mentors in their lives. The ability for our kids talk to someone they trust and that you trust, but is not you, is so important and life-giving to them. You can say...